Good News & Bad News, page-44572

I've been away from the PLS page for quite a while, so I apologise if i'm covering old ground here. I've been invested for many many years with my first purchases around 11 cents. So yes, I've done well but like I imagine all of us are ...... very frustrated and somewhat concerned about the state of affairs with this Lithium cycle.

Clearly (through my eyes at least) this suppression of the lithium price is not going to change until there is more (a lot more) chemical processing being done outside of China.

I can't wait for the day when we can say 'no' to China for our exports of spod. Unfortunately, I see in the past week LTR have succumbed to the pressure and have broken their own strategic policy of withholding spodumene from China. So where, or more to the point 'when' will this bottom of the lithium pricing cycle end ? Is it in fact the bottom ?

Does anyone have at their finger tips the current state of progress with establishing more chemical processing outside of China (particularly in Europe and US) in order to break this stranglehold the Chinese have on lithium pricing?

My understanding is that Lepidolite is very plentiful in China (containing approx 4% LiO), apparently it is costly to process because of impurities etc.., but obviously the COP is still low enough for the Chinese to continue with this strategy despite the pain that it brings them.

Despite the sales of EV's and battery storage increasing YoY, there seems to be very little impact on the supply / demand ratio. Where does this leave PLS and others in the medium and long term?

What are your best guesses for a turn around in lithium pricing ?

It seems to me that no one saw this strategy coming from the Chinese (other than Goldman Sachs it seems......... I can't believe I typed that). Back in March this year they predicted a 150 000 tonne surplus this year and a 336 000 tonne surplus in 2025 meaning further supply cuts are likely to be needed to improve pricing.

I guess this will be a nail in the coffin for many green-field projects and is going to make it tough for newbies like LTR and more so the likes of CXO etc...,

I know everyone's sentiment has been discussed (probably ad nauseam), but what are you folks out there feeling about the current state of play.